With the increasing number of homeowners and non-professional personnel doing electrical wiring, the occurrence of miswire has been on the rise despite efforts of code regulators and electrical manufacturers to provide clear and easy-to-read manuals and installation instructions with electrical equipment and wiring devices. Wiring devices such as and including AFCIs and GFCIs in addition to their standard features, are required to have miswire protection. The current invention is an integrated system and method of miswire protection and annunciation of system conditions for Arc Fault Circuit Interrupters (AFCIs) and other wiring devices, electrical systems and equipment. System conditions include voltage, current, wattage or energy consumption, power on or off, and electrical faults such as and including arc, overload, short circuit, ground and miswire, among others. Prior arts use visual indicators such as lights and/or audible alarms to signal the occurrence of electrical faults and without identification of which faults occur. The current invention involves additional features of annunciation which include pre-recorded, graphic and alpha-numeric display of system conditions and the faults that occur in electrical circuits, equipment or wiring devices such as and including AFCIs and GFCIs. The annunciation may be within the electrical system, equipment or wiring device or in a remote location through wired or wireless interfaces.
For purposes of this invention, the following terms are used and mean the same as or substitute for the other:                a) AC—in electrical terms, this refers to alternating current        b) DC—in electrical terms, this refers to direct current        c) AFCI or AFCIs (in singular or plural form)—commonly known as Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter        d) GFCI or GFCIs (in singular or plural form)—commonly known as Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter        e) PSD or PSDs (in singular or plural form)—Protection System or Device such as an electrical system, equipment or device equipped with a monitoring and control circuit for fault detection and interruption such as and including GFCIs and AFCIs.        f) LINE WIRE—also known as HOT or LIVE wire        g) NEUTRAL WIRE—also known as COLD wire or without potential        h) MICROPROCESSOR—also called microcontroller or a small computer Integrated Circuit with processor, memory and programmable input and output peripherals.        i) TRIP or TRIPPED—term to indicate a contactor or switch position being OFF, a button designation for OFF position, turn OFF or turned OFF, switch OFF.        j) RESET—term to indicate a contactor or switch position being ON, a button designation for “ON” position, turn ON or turned ON.        k) OPTOCOUPLER—an electronic device for switching an isolated circuit        l) SCR or SCRs (in singular or plural form)—SILICON CONTROLLED RECTIFIERS or solid-state switchers reacting to the flow of current to switch a circuit ON or OFF        m) PROPERLY WIRED—in relation to a circuit, equipment or wiring device, means that the LINE-SIDE LINE wire is connected to the LINE-SIDE LINE terminal, the LINE-SIDE NEUTRAL wire is connected to the LINE-SIDE NEUTRAL terminal, the LOAD-SIDE LINE wire is connected to the LOAD-SIDE LINE terminal, and the LOAD-SIDE NEUTRAL wire is connected to the LOAD-SIDE NEUTRAL terminal. Additionally, for grounded circuits, this means that the GROUND wire is connected to the GROUND terminal.        n) LINE-SIDE—means that part of an electrical circuit, equipment or device which is intended for connection of the main power supply.        o) LOAD-SIDE—means that part of an electrical circuit, equipment or device which is intended for connection of the LOAD.        p) SOLENOID-ACTUATED—also mean electromagnetically-actuated, pertains to the method of actuating the RESET or TRIP mechanism of PSDs. When the term electromagnetic is used in conjunction with a TRIP or RESET mechanism or action, it would mean solenoid-actuated.        q) SOLENOID—refers to an assembly consisting of wires wound on a core to produce a uniform magnetic field, a plunger which is actuated by the magnetic field which attaches to a fixture for latching or unlocking RESET or TRIP mechanisms such as those of a contactor.        r) LED—refers to Light Emitting Diodes which are available in different colors and are used for visual annunciation.        s) LCD—refers to Liquid Crystal Display for alphabetic, numeric or alpha-numeric annunciation.        t) NO—for auxiliary contacts mean Normally Open        u) NC—for auxiliary contacts mean Normally Close.        v) PRESS or PRESSED—refers to switching of contacts by pressing a button        w) CODE—as used with and in reference to a microprocessor means the program that drives its input and output peripherals and all other processing functions. Code-driven means the same as software-driven.        
The most common miswire conditions relative to PSDs include the following:                LINE-SIDE and LOAD-SIDE reversed wiring—this is when the LINE-SIDE wires are connected to the LOAD-SIDE terminals and the LOAD-SIDE wires connected to the LINE-SIDE terminals of the PSD;        LINE-SIDE LINE and NEUTRAL reversed wiring—this is when the LINE-SIDE LINE wire is connected to the LINE-SIDE NEUTRAL terminal and the LINE-SIDE NEUTRAL Wire is connected to the LINE-SIDE LINE Terminal of the PSD; and        LINE-SIDE and LOAD-SIDE crossed wiring—this is when the LINE-SIDE LINE wire is connected to the LOAD-SIDE NEUTRAL terminal, the LINE-SIDE NEUTRAL wire is connected to the LOAD-SIDE LINE terminal, the LOAD-SIDE LINE wire is connected to the LINE-SIDE NEUTRAL terminal and the LOAD-SIDE NEUTRAL wire is connected to the LINE-SIDE LINE terminal of a PSD. While this may be considered a miswire condition by itself, it is actually the combination of the two miswire conditions mentioned above.        
The current invention is for PSDs with a detection and interruption system which generally employs a contactor or similar devices with switching and tripping mechanisms. The most common contactors used for PSDs have a solenoid-actuated TRIP mechanism, and a RESET mechanism which could either be manually-actuated or solenoid-actuated. The present invention is applicable to all types and variations of contactors provided with a tripping mechanism.
Although miswire is typically detected the first time a PSD is powered on after installation, miswire detection is integrated into a PSD's code routine and therefore continuously monitored even after the PSD's first use. With a miswire condition present, the PSD will trip whenever the device is RESET, and with certain types of contactors and miswire conditions, the PSD would not turn ON at all, maintaining an OFF position until the wiring is done properly.
To highlight the significance of the present invention, differences with prior arts are cited below for reference:
U.S. Pat. No. 7,751,162B1 (July 2010 Packard et al) disclosed a protective device with miswire protection which is specifically for a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter device. The miswire circuit included a resistor which is intended to generate a differential current over a pre-determined value. This is different from the present invention which uses a code-driven microprocessor-controlled integrated system and method of detection and interruption.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,633,726B2 (December 2009 Huang et al) disclosed a protective device with miswire protection which is practically a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter. This patent does not have a circuit to detect miswire conditions on either LINE or LOAD side and only relies on the operation of electromagnetic solenoids for TRIP and RESET of the contactor. When the LINE-SIDE and LOAD-SIDE wires are reversed and the device is on TRIP condition, the device is rendered non-operational since the operation of the TRIP and RESET SOLENOIDS depend only on power being on and device properly wired, which is different from the present invention which uses a code-driven MICROPROCESSOR-controlled integrated system and method of detection and interruption which functions whether the power supply is connected to the LOAD or LINE side of the PSD.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,538,994B2 (May 2009 Bonilla et al) disclosed a protective device with miswire protection which is practically only a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter device. The disclosure relies on having the GFCI in a TRIPPED or OFF position before first powered on wherein a locking plate is pressed to engage a projection on the back side of the plunger to connect to a secondary contact to close a circuit. The RESET BUTTON when pressed can not engage with the latching plate. Only when the LINE side is powered on that the plunger releases the locking plate and allow RESET to occur. This is different from the present invention which uses a code-driven microprocessor-controlled integrated system and method of detection and interruption. The present invention also do not require that the PSD be initially on OFF position at first installation.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,403,086 B2 (July 2008 Wu et al) like the U.S. Pat. No. 7,633,726B2 (December 2009 Huang et al) Wu et al disclosed a protective device with miswire protection which is practically a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter and for that particular device and circuitry only which will not apply to any other wiring devices as AFCI or others that are operating in different principles. This patent does not have a circuit to detect miswire conditions on either LINE or LOAD side of the device and only relies on the operation of electromagnetic solenoids for TRIP and RESET of the contactor. When the LINE side wires are miswired to the LOAD side, the device is rendered non-operational since the operation of the TRIP and RESET SOLENOIDs depend only on power being on. This is different from the present invention which uses a code-driven MICROPROCESSOR-controlled integrated system and method of detection and interruption which functions whether the power supply is connected to the LOAD or LINE side of the PSD.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,226,161 B1 (May 2001 Neiger et al)—like all miswire protection patents mentioned above, this patent disclosed a GFCI incorporating a miswire protection which is designed to work only with a GFCI receptacle outlet. In the disclosures of this patent, four bridge circuits are utilized to derive DC power supply to indicate a miswire condition and that the alarm remain on and can not be shut-OFF until corrected. Unlike the present invention the miswire protection detects a miswire condition and feeds it back to the MICROPROCESSOR which through a code-driven routine signals the TRIP circuit to activate the TRIP mechanism and the corresponding signal to activate the annunciation of audible and visual alarms or indicators.